[Sfgwife]

2 of our 3 outside pens have lost most of their grass and are now "dry lots". I put down some 1/4 inch gravel in the fall when it was really mucky. It is hard to clean the poop. When the snow melted the trodden down winter poop was gross, so I put down more of the gravel. It is still hard to clean. I tried raking, sweeping, scooping... Now we are having a rainy time, and I feel awful about the gross factor.
All the pens have wood platforms that I clean every day, and the goats hang out on those. But the yuck sticks to their hooves and my shoes.
Any suggestions that worked for you?

A landscape cloth under the gravel or mulch you put down should help a lot. It will keep the layer of stuff you put on it on top and not slowly losing it to the earth. We have the tree trimmers dump their loads here and i love the mulch. We do not have the cloth down so every now and agaiin need redo it. But paul puts me down a 6-8 inch layer and i am good for a long time.

 

[Sfgwife]

I like the mulch idea too. But do the poops get mixed in it, or how does that work?

it does. But we do the mulch outside of the barn not inside. Inside is dirt floor and shavings in summer and deep bedding in winter. In winter if a spot gets really messy i will scoop it out but mostly just add more dry stuff atop it all. When shavings are down i spot clean every day and clean clean every two weeks usually. More if needed for complete cleans.

 

[Sfgwife]

@Sfgwife maybe you missed this...
Can you tell me how it works with mulch in your pens? Do you have to replace it all once in a while, or are you able to clean the turds out of it? Thanks!

We add more when it gets mucky in there. Most of the time it os pretty dry. We have had a lot of rain this winter. I do not scoop poop outside and the mulch only goes outside. Ours are not in a small dry lot all the time. It is the area right in front of the barns.. so yes they do go there it is just not a place they stay a lot. So i do not have a lot of poop there.